Free Between the Seams by Aubrey Gross

see if she can figure out where they’re coming in from. She’s debating between trapping them and taking them somewhere else, or tagging them to study them.”
    Jo watched Chase as he mulled that over. “I’ll let Miranda form her own opinion first, but there’s a lot to consider. It’s their breeding season right now, which means we could have bear cubs come January.”
    “Which means a pregnant, hibernating mama bear during busy season.”
    Chase nodded. “I don’t want to drive them out of their natural habitat, but we have to take safety into consideration. And I really don’t want Miranda and Texas Parks and Wildlife jumping on our asses if one of our guests sees one and gets trigger happy, thinking he’s taking home a trophy.”
    “They’re endangered, right?” Jo asked, trying to recall what little knowledge she had of black bears, which wasn’t much.
    “Yes, so they can’t legally be hunted. If one of our guests was to kill one we could lose our license, permits and be shut down. There’s also that whole threatened species thing, too. We manage our wildlife population, which means helping threatened species flourish, among other things.”
    Daniel tilted his head towards the screen. “There are a couple of others here I thought you might like to see, too.”
    Jo watched as the photos changed from night to early morning. Daniel stopped on one, and she gasped. “Is that a baby buffalo?”
    Chase smiled. “Correct again. We’ve been waiting to see if we had any this year. This one’s the first we’ve caught on the trail cams so far.”
    Daniel smiled. “It gets better.”
    He clicked through a few other photos until he stopped on a photo of three white tail does, four small fawns close by, their legs long and gangly and their fur dotted with ivory colored spots. Chase’s smile widened, his eyes crinkled at the corners, and Jo fought to keep her heart at a steady pace in her chest.
    Good Lord the man was sexy when he smiled.
    “We’re seeing signs of a good fawn crop this year. Early, too.”
    Daniel nodded and closed the photos. “That, we are. Figured you’d want to see those. Good and not so good.”
    They all three stood and Chase turned to Jo. “Wanna see some of it? We don’t have time to tour all of it, but I can show you around a little bit.”
    She smiled. “I would love to.”
    ~~*~~
    Chase turned and grabbed a set of keys off a hook on the wall. “We’re gonna take Shirley. Radio me if you need anything.”
    He resisted the urge to grab Jo’s hand as they left the office.
    Bears and bison and white tails. Oh my. And here they’d all figured this summer was going to be quiet.
    They entered the barn and Chase led them to Shirley, a two-seater utility vehicle that was used primarily by staff to get around the ranch for fun and minor projects. Before he climbed onto the seat he checked the gun boot across the back of the roll cage, made sure the rifle inside was on safe and loaded. Satisfied, he shoved it back into the boot and climbed onto the seat.
    “Can you open the glove box and make sure there’s a first aid kit and box of thirty ought six in there?”
    Jo opened the small glove box. “I see a red kit with a first aid cross on it.” She reached in and shook the box of bullets. “And it looks like we’re good to go on thirty ought six.”
    She closed the glove box and he started the engine, released the brake and moved out of the barn. “Have you hunted before?”
    She shook her head. “Nope. My dad’s idea of hunting included rare texts and libraries. Mom’s idea of hunting…well…she was a different type of maneater.”
    Chase turned the UTV onto a well-worn trail, away from the main buildings and towards one of his favorite places on the ranch.
    “What’s Shorty?” Jo asked as they bounced along the rutted, rocky trail, dust kicking up behind them.
    “One of our feeders. It’s the shortest one we have, thus, Shorty.”
    “You name the feeders?”